Cheated jumps aside, Sarah had many great qualities as a skater. I often felt the harsh criticism that her skating faced was way exaggerated. She had interesting programs, good in-betweens (more so than Kwan and Cohen I'd say at the time), great spins, solid basics and a good sense of musicality, even if she was a little less polished than some of the other top skaters.

I agree with you. Comparing Yuna in 2010 to Sara in 2002 feels just as strange as comparing Michelle in '98 to Kati in '88. Skating moves forward, eras and RULES change, and skaters continue to improve.
To overlook this seems to show any lack of historical perspective and even elementary understanding of sports in general and skating in particular..

What next - that Carol Heiss was better than Sonja?

It is interesting that there is a thread going on now about the difficulty of putting a 3Loop as the second jump of a combination. A few said it seems almost impossible to get the rotations ratified under the IJS.

Hello - Sarah was not skating under the IJS. I happen to love Michelle and Sasha and in retrospect Irina as well. Three terrific skaters which only makes Sarah's accomplishment in 2002 more noteworthy.

As to '06 or 2010 - or just go ahead and pick almost any Olympics and few have ever skated with the freedom we saw from Sarah in SLC. Ironic that possibly Tara comes to mind

I am not writing to compare 16 year old Sarah's performance to Yuna or any other Olympic champion. I am saying that in 2002 she performed exceptionally well, beat two great skaters who perhaps did not handle the pressure as well and it is silly to bring up loops - when Sarah did them in difficult combinations we rarely see today.

Yuna was the best in 2010 and a wonderful Olympic champion. I would feel horrible and might not follow skating as much if our 2010 champion was not better than our 2002 champion. Not to recognize that skating moves forward feels terribly shortsighted to me and is a point that should not need to be debated.